According to Russell’s letter, Barca contacted the school’s assistant principal on Sept. 5. She was told that the application submitted by her sponsoring teacher was lost. However, the teacher who agreed to sponsor the club told Barca on Sept. 10 that the form had been located. Barca had three different meetings with Principal David Seipp, the... Continue Reading

Do we want to play the game of ascribing certain characteristics (how someone speaks, or their mannerisms) as being masculine or feminine? In many parts of the Middle East and Africa, men hold hands or arms or embrace or kiss—yet this simply means friendship and respect. In North America, we do not. We need to... Continue Reading

Colossians 2:6-23 is the locus classicus for the way in which the Apostle Paul focuses his readers attention on the ever present danger of being deceived by counterfeit gospels, religions and practices. It would serve us well to return there often and consider what Paul says to a congregation full of new believers who were vulnerable to... Continue Reading

Through the psalmist the Lord invites us, saying, “Pour out your hearts before him” (Ps. 62:8). When he walked this earth our Lord showed that he invites us to pray, saying three times in his teaching on prayer, “When you pray,” and then he said, “Pray then like this” (Matt. 6:5, 6, 7, 9). Clearly, God desires and... Continue Reading

He believed that God’s gospel would somehow fade off into the sunset just as multitudes of pagan myths and godless ideologies have throughout history. However, for Christianity to die, God would have to die. For Christianity to vanish, truth would have to vanish. That’s simply not going to happen.   In 1966 John Lennon of... Continue Reading

God sent the storm. God prepared the sea-creature. In one sense, these calamities represented God’s chastening. At the same time, however, the sovereign Lord meant them to change Jonah’s direction. God used both the storm and the leviathan to lead His prophet.   We face a kind of paradox in doing the Lord’s work. On... Continue Reading

“You know what?  I pray for these opportunities all of the time, that God will give me the chance to tell someone about the good news, about Jesus, about what it means to live with hope in a challenging and difficult world. And this one is presented to me on a platter and I’m being... Continue Reading

The composite nature of PSA explains why few Christians before the reformation defined PSA exactly as the Reformed did, while most pre-reformation Christians affirmed the first principles that would make up the doctrine. Hence, the historical plausibility of PSA derives from the fact that each of its theological first principles finds clear affirmation among Christians and Scripture.... Continue Reading

The Colossian church was dealing with some doctrinal issues—exactly what they were is hard to pin down, but it seems that false teachers were slowly sneaking in and adding bits and pieces to the faith. That’s what the apostle Paul means in Colossians 2:8 when he says “philosophy.”   Part of always following Jesus means... Continue Reading

The basic logic of the Gospel is that whatever Christ has done he has done it for us and for our salvation. He lived a perfect life, died an innocent death, and conquered death by rising from the grave. In so doing, he lived for us, died for us, and rose for us. We now... Continue Reading